Meet the Nunavut grandpa who has made over 250,000 Wikipedia edits

Whether you know it or not, you're probably familiar with the work of Alan Sim.

The Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, resident has made over 250,000 — and counting — edits to Wikipedia articles. He's edited just about every article on the site relating to the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

His contributions range from starting the Wikipedia entry on Kátł'odeeche First Nation, making sure that all different spellings of the Inuktut word amauti direct people to the same page, and adding an article for every single airport in the North.

He has also become one of only 440 active Wikipedia editors in the world trusted with administrator access to English-language articles.

"I'm hoping that people will find what I've put on there interesting," he said. "They'll learn something about the North, I hope."

A life in the North

Sim, 68, grew up in the United Kingdom and entered the workforce during a serious economic downturn. He originally moved to Canada because he was struggling to find work in the U.K.

"It ended up a choice between coming to the Arctic or going to Australia and living on a sheep farm," he said.  "I wasn't sure I really liked sheep that much."

It ended up being a good decision — he has lived in N.W.T. and Nunavut for almost 50 years.

Sim's first job in Canada was at the Hudson's Bay Company in Taloyoak in 1978. After a year there, he moved to Ulukhaktok, where he met his wife and got married. He lived there for 19 years before moving to Cambridge Bay, where he has lived ever since. He and his wife have since divorced, but his grandkids and extended family are almost all still in Cambridge Bay.

A dedicated editor

Sim discovered Wikipedia in 2005, while looking for online articles to read on his PalmPilot. It's branded as "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit."

"I sort of look at it and think, maybe [Wikipedia] can't be serious that people can just do what they want with it, edit it," he said, recalling.

So he created a username — CambridgeBayWeather, in honour of his job working at the weather station in the local airport — and tried it out.

Almost as soon as he signed up, he started spending hours each day on the site.

His first project was to try and add a Wikipedia page for every airport in Canada, no matter how small. Then he moved on to weather monitoring equipment.

Wikipedia made Sim an administrator after just months as an editor. He said that now, the process is quite rigorous, but at the time it was pretty informal.

"It was almost like, 'you've not done anything bad so we'll make you an administrator this week,'" he said, adding that the main eligibility criteria were "being there, not being stupid."

'I just enjoy it'

At his most active period, Sim estimates that he was spending about four or five hours on Wikipedia a day, split between home and quiet moments at work.

Sim's son, Jorgen Sim, was in his early twenties at the time, and lived with his dad.

"He would talk about it quite often. He would always be telling me, 'you know so and so has made these changes,'" the younger Sim said.

"I just thought it was kind of hilarious."

But Jorgen said he also has a lot of respect for the time his dad has put into Wikipedia. While Sim is a less active editor than he used to be, he still edits Wikipedia almost every day, in addition to working and being an involved granddad. He now focuses his energy on pages related to the North. 

"I just think he likes having the actual facts known for people. He would rather someone be more well-informed than be misinformed," Jorgen said.

"I'm quite proud of him, because, you know,  it does take a lot of discipline to stay that dedicated to constantly editing Wikipedia."

Sim said that for him, editing Wikipedia has been a good way to unwind, learn new things, and even make friends. He has met two fellow Wikipedia editors in person and keeps up with a few others on social media.

But he said the reason he has stuck with it is even more basic than that.

"I just enjoy it," he said.

"You know, I live in Cambridge Bay, there's not a huge amount to do … it's a hobby. Once upon a time I used to collect stamps when I was a kid. It's just one of those things."

Sim acknowledges that Wikipedia editing might not be for everyone, but he encourages anyone who is interested to give it a try — especially people from the territories. He said the site could use more editors from the North.